In David Holmes’ blog post called “Why Yahoo’s abandonment of core Tumblr users is actually almost commendable” he explains the current situation Tumblr users are facing while Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, attempts to transform Tumblr into a video-based website to compete against Youtube.

As an occasional user of Tumblr I can only just begin to understand the immense amount of frustration long-time Tumblr users are undergoing with the recent changes in Tumblr’s image size requirements. Many users have taken the time to create images and animated GIFs that once perfectly fit the size formats of Tumblr but now have been completely compromised to the point where these images will not show up. For any artist to see their work stripped without any warning is not a joyous occasion.

While I applaud Mayer for considering new business model strategies for Tumblr to grow, I similar to Holmes believe this is a mistake if it irritates the original foundation of what makes Tumblr Tumblr, that being the users who make up the site. For Tumblr to shift their customer segment from teenagers and young adults who mainly use Tumblr for blogging purposes as well as sharing of artwork, music, and animated gifs to focusing on being a video sharing platform at the cost of over thousands of users makes little sense. Unlike Holmes I do not commend Yahoo with what they are attempting to do because of the method they are going about it.

Over 50,000 users show their distaste for Yahoo’s new direction by signing a petition named “Reverse image size change taking place on 30/11/14, and return to old image sizes before 30/11/14”.

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